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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Team Talk Blood member Mark Blankenship just posted his "Sucker Punch" you can listen to us discussing this episode Sunday night click on widget to right !

Before we dive into “It Hurts Me Too,” I need to talk about a recent review of True Blood by Entertainment Weekly‘s Ken Tucker. In his conclusion, he wrote:

What show creator Alan Ball has brought to True Blood‘s pulp-horror trappings is a unifying theme of power versus helplessness: an insistence that victims are capable of toughening, of overcoming their powerlessness to become smarter and stronger. It’s a positive message that Ball and his writers and directors smuggle into a show that only seems to revel in decadence, gore, and duplicity. True Blood‘s dirtiest little secret is that it may be among the most ethical, even righteous, shows on television.

Meanwhile, in his recap of the season premiere, Tucker said, “I like True Blood best when it’s fast, dirty, and funny.”

These statements clarify my own relationship to the show: Yes, it’s full of metaphor, and I certainly enjoy it on that level. However, I mostly like True Blood because it’s trashy, bloody, sexy, and funny. It’s more valuable to me as candy than as vitamins.

This isn’t always how I roll. I like Big Love‘s sweeping themes more than its individual plots, and as much as I love the campiness on RuPaul’s Drag Race, I love its subtle critique of American society even more.

EVEN BOY WIZARD Harry Potter- whose movie franchise-based theme park opened in Orlando, Fla., earlier this month - has been drained of his powers by the vampires among us.
With apologies to radio personality Howard Stern , the undead clearly have claimed the title King of All Media this month. "True Blood," HBO's popular series set in current-day Louisiana, started its third season on June 13. "Twilight" author Stephenie Meyer's latest book "The Short Second Lifeof Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella" was released on June 5 and has already sold a million copies. And "Eclipse," the third movie in the multimillion-dollar franchise, opens today. (See Gary Thompson's review, Page 35.)
Justin Cronin's "The Passage," a new postapocalyptic novel featuring vampirelike creatures was published June 8 and is No. 4 on the New York Times best-sellers list. (Fox 2000 reportedly bought the rights to a film version of the book three years ago, before it was even written.)

It happened at a friend's slumber party, circa 1979. Bored of talking about boys (it wasn't really our fault: we were 12), I turned on the TV.

A handsome dark-haired man was biting a pretty girl on the throat ... but she didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, her long golden hair was fanned out across the pillows as she threw her head back in obvious ecstasy. She was writhing around on this big canopy bed while scarlet rivulets of blood streamed very artistically down the front of her white lace nightgown, which was hiked up around her slim thighs.

Orchestral music swelled in the background. You could tell something amazing was about to happen. Such as sex!

Sadly, however, we didn't get to see it. My friend's mom walked in, saw what we were watching, and turned the TV off.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Part of True Blood’s appeal is that the cast portrays their characters so well that it’s hard to believe they aren’t real. Enter Lafayette, played by Nelsan Ellis. Lafayette is a gay man who is flamboyant and egregious but at the same time isn’t stereotypical. He’s masculine but also feminine and will knock any man out if he’s pushed that far.

However, the man behind the character is the opposite. Ellis is a Julliard trained, perfectly straight Alabama native who initially struggled with bringing Lafayette to life but now that he has it down, he’s hoping that other industry insiders will remember that the character he plays is fictional. In edition to True Blood, he recently rapped a feature film, has his own screenplay in the works and wouldn’t mind appearing in a Tyler Perry project. Here, he tells VIBE how he brought Lafayette to life, what the gay community thinks about the character and how he plans to transition beyond his True Blood role. ⎯Starrene Rhett

VIBE: Lafayette is dead in the book so how did you make the TV character your own?

Nelsan Ellis: I think by the second or third audition I got some bad notes from the casting director. They figured I was playing a stereotype or something like that so I got a friend of mine to come and work the audition with me and somehow I found the character inside of me versus putting on something that wasn’t real. Alan Ball wanted the character to be a myriad of things and at first I was skeptical but I somehow found it, maybe it was God helping me out.

So that stereotype you were playing must have been a Queenie type of gay guy, huh?

Yeah, at first because in the break down he was supposed to be almost drag queenish but I didn’t really play that right coming in, even when I got the job. I didn’t really find Lafayette until the third or fourth episode because I certainly didn’t have him in the pilot. There were takes where I was playing with who he was and takes that I was—they just happened to pick takes that were consistent with who Alan Ball thought the character should be.

Welcome back to Bon Temps, LA, where the men drink blood, the women hear your thoughts, and the children don't figure much into the R-rated happenings. When last we left True Blood, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) was rushing out of the bathroom of a very nice restaurant to tell Vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) that indeed she would be his until her death did they part when he was suddenly abducted. We pick up the vamp-napping in progress as three hillbillies take turns using Bill like a wine cooler in the backseat in order to get high off his blood.

Blood figures in any vampire series. It's kind of a big deal. But the impression Gothtopia gets is that the concept of tainted blood will play a big part in this season. Are we as people, even undead or shape shifting people, fated to become like those whose blood gave us life in the first place? Certainly nurture battles nature. The children of rock stars become accountants. Last we heard, none of the children adopted from the Manson family, including Charlie's own biological children, have become hypnotic murderers. And yet, 500 years after the death of Vlad the Impaler (Who served as the inspiration of Bram Stoker's Dracula), one of his direct descendants owned and operated a Turkish blood bank. Is a blood link to a bloody past an indicator of an inescapable fate?

Talk Blood Radio team members, Brian and Andy just posted their #.03 episode vlog
" PULLED A MICKENS ! HAHA"

Sh-Sh-Sh-Shake it up, Lorena!
Yes, Gay Pride in NYC just so haaaaaaappened to coincide with the most insanely effed-up True Blood moment of the season … so of course Andy and I did what any good horror-lovin’ homos do when faced with vampire-induced severe spinal trauma: We threw a dance party!
Seriously, lady – this week’s episode had it all, from Bud Dearborne’s anal overshare to Pam’s Estonian boxed lunch to the greatest WTF sex scene in the show’s already quite checkered history. Relive it all – minus the chiropractor Bill bill – above.
Bonus: A screencap of the scariest thing you’ll ever see before your morning martini coffee, after the jump!

With True Blood now in its third season and picked up for a fourth by HBO, actress Carrie Preston and her True Blood character, Arlene Fowler, are still in the HBO mix after speculation the True Blood waitress may be leaving. With Preston and Arlene still waitressing at Merlotte's, season three keeps in line with The Southern Vampire Mysteries, Club Dead, as True Blood has quickly become a popular staple for HBO in the new era of bloodsuckers.
As True Blood enjoys its best ratings to date, with new mysteries surrounding Anna Paquin's Sookie and Stephen Moyer's Bill Compton, we tracked down Carrie Preston for a True Blood one-on-one to chat about the popularity of vampires, working with Alan Ball, the inner motivations of Arelene, and the true blood of redheads.THE DEADBOLT: Congrats on getting season four.CARRIE PRESTON: How about that? And only on the heels of getting a second viewing on season three. So that's a good sign.THE DEADBOLT: How do you relate to Arlene?PRESTON: Well, I relate to how confident she is. I relate to her work ethic. I know that sounds funny, but she takes her job extremely seriously, as do I. And she doesn't suffer from any fools and she really wants things to be done in the right way, and I appreciate that [laughs].
Also, I can relate to how strong she is and she's a survivor. She takes whatever comes her way. Even if it creates some kind of histrionics in her, she is somehow able to overcome it, pull herself together, and do what needs to be done. I can really admire that in her as well, plus she's funny.

True Blood's vampire sex scene that will live on in infamyWTF did we see last night on True Blood? And will we ever be the same for viewing it? Let us explain it to you Pro/Con style.

We've got a lot of material to cover Con/Pro wise, before we can get to the meat of last night episode. And by meat I mean terribly disturbing sex scene. So let's get on with it!

The next episode picks up right where it left off. Vampire versus wolf, versus Sookie and her pants pistol.

Con: This Matrix bullet opening scene. True Blood you don't have good enough special effects to be wasting money on this ridiculous thing. We know vampires move fast we don't need to see the bullet make little spirals of time and air in Sookie's house. We're good, vampires, they're fast, gotcha.

True Blood's vampire sex scene that will live on in infamy

Con: What are the noises that Eric is making after he inhaled that werewolf? Vampire hairball?

Pro: "I got your rug all wet," says Eric to Sookie with a marvelous shit-eating grin. And for some reason Sookie isn't having sex with him right there on top of the naked, dead, waxed werewolf. Something is wrong with her, beyond the light-fingers thing.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Dead in the Family is the latest bestselling vampire fantasy novel from Charlaine Harris, and the 10th book in the series that inspired the hit HBO show True Blood (now in its third season), starring Anna Pacquin as telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse.
In the books, Sookie is a blonde and buxom resident of the Louisiana town of Bon Temps, where she spends less time fighting vampires than getting busy with them. But will she end up with the courtly ex-Confederate Bill, or has she permanently hopped coffins to cozy up with Eric the bloodsucking Viking? In the mix are sundry tigers, werewolves, dogs, witches, house cats, maenads, goblins and fairies.

Last week fans were introduced to Russell Edgington, the vampire King of Mississippi. Now, I'd like you to meet Denis O'Hare, the remarkable actor who brings this "True Blood" baddie to life. Or death ... immortality is confusing.
And exactly how long his character has been alive was quite a coup for Denis, a self-proclaimed history nerd. It gave him the opportunity to create three millennia worth of backstory. From the bed of the Danube to the coast of Europe, Denis mentally charted a course his character probably trekked.
A journey that brought him and his life partner, Talbot, to Mississippi and into our living rooms. And while my interview with Denis had me reaching for the nearest Atlas, it was also an enlightening conversation where I learned about his process as an actor, his feeling on playing "True Blood's" first gay couple and the recurring nightmare this bloody show has left him with. PopWrap: You were a fan of the show before joining, so let's start with one thing you love about working on "True Blood" that fans may not know.
Denis O'Hare: The teeth are fun – they’re tough to talk in, so we have soft fangs and hard fangs. Soft fangs are for biting people, so you don’t hurt the other people, and the hard fangs are for speaking, because they stay in better and are easier to articulate with. But either way, my favorite thing to say with the fangs is Sookie Stackhouse [lisps out her name]. It’s like a vampire retainer.

Sleeping with a vampire is basically necrophilia and can even suggest incest (you're sleeping with your "maker"), and since you are dealing with an immortal, the age differences between partners can be positively vast. But the most troublingly taboo aspect of the sex lives of vampires concerns the question of consent. Rape is as dominant a subtext in vampire stories as mindless conformity is in zombie stories. No less an authority than Stephen King has said that the re-enactment of the primal rape scene is part of the vampire's enduring success.

Stephen Moyer, whose Vampire Bill is the romantic center of True Blood, took some criticism last year for suggesting in a magazine interview that one plot twist was built on a rape fantasy, but the allure of forbidden sex has long been a part of the vampire story since Bram Stoker's Dracula.

True Blood is such supremely dirty fun because it doesn't just tap into the dark sexual kinks of the vampire myth. It refines and experiments on them, giving old taboos a fresh spin. For one thing, the traditional vampire is a man preying on women; here, women are the predators just as often. Rape has become something of a vampire cliché. The sick genius of Episode 3, which returns the series strongly

Team Talk Blood member, Jefwithonef weighs in with his muisc review of Ep 3

Season 3, Episode 3: "It Hurts Me Too"

Being able to follow the Season 3 of True Blood from the beginning has given Gothtopia a chance to really flow along with Alan Ball's thought processes and dissect in a constructive and insightful way all the nuances both of the current storyline, and how his choices in soundtracking illustrate and enhance those nuances.
This week's report will not be one of those kinds of critiques. Blues fans should have no trouble recognizing the song that gives the third episode, "It Hurts Me Too," its name. It's one of the most recognizable blues standards out there, first recorded by Tampa Red back in 1940. Since then it's been sung by everyone from the Rolling Stones to Eric Clapton, but the most influential recording of the song, and the one used in the episode, is the one done by Elmore James.

James was one of those blues artists that was such an archetype he might as well have been the subject of a blues song himself, with his appetite for homemade moonshine, fast driving and guns contributing to his death via heart attack No. 3 at age 45 in 1963. His interpretation of his friend Tampa Red's classic song has proven so definitive that other artist's covers rarely venture far from it.

I realize I'm far from the first person to say this, but I'm starting to worry "True Blood" has spawned too many plots in its third season. Look at tonight: You've got Sookie heading off with her new pal, Alcide, to find Bill. But that's only after she and Eric do a little werewolf detecting. You've got the adventures of Bill in his Mississippi prison with Lorena and Russell, but you also get to look into his past again. You've got Sam doing ... something with his birth family. Tara continues to go through the stress of losing Eggs and attracting a new suitor. Arlene is pregnant again, but the baby is farther along than it should be if it's Terry's. Jason is trying to become a cop while still dealing with the leftover feelings from last season. Jessica continues to attempt to hide that dead body. And the vampire PI is just generally making everybody's life miserable. And that's to say nothing of plots that basically don't turn up at all, like, say, Eric and Godric in World War II.
All of these storylines more or less shared the same hour, but they didn't really have a lot in common, beyond just featuring characters who exist in the show's universe. On most other shows with this large of an ensemble, the storylines are either pared down each week, or they all share some sort of thematic link. On "True Blood," the writers just come up with a bunch of crazy stuff for the characters to do, then toss their scripts in the deep end. This is not a bad thing, mind you. Part of the fun of the show is seeing what crazy stuff the writers can cram into every episode. But there comes a point where there's just too much going on, and "True Blood" is toeing that line. Realistically, how much more can the show put in there? I expect we're about to find out.

Warning: Don't read if you haven't seen tonight's new episode of True Blood.

And if you have, may I offer you a a Brillo pad to scrub out your brain? 'Cause I think I speak for fans everywhere when I say...ick!

After tonight's stomach-churning, head-spinning (sorry) sexual twist (again, sorry)—the shocking scene that Stephen Moyer called a "watercooler moment for the next 20 years"—I'm sure many of you fellow fans don't think you'll never be able to look at a certain True Blood star the same again.

Well I spoke to that star (not pictured with this story--'cause that would be too spoilery) and she wants you to know:

Official Description: "Sookie joins Alcide at a raucous engagement party for his former fiancee, Debbie Pelt; Eric is given a deadline to locate Bill; Andy gets a promotion and draws Jason's attention; Franklin takes Tara on a road trip; Arlene is irked by Jessica's arrival at Merlotte's; Sam brokers a deal with Tommy and his parents; Bill "procures" dinner for Russell and Lorena."

I sure hope you were listening to the show last night because we had a special phone call from Andy " Creepy biker" Mackenzie. It was so much fun hearing about the filming of that opening scene where Eric rips his throat out ...

We are joined tonight by our Talk Blood team member and guest reviewer Mark Blankenship, Pop Culture Critic for Huffington Post and blogger at http://www.thecriticalcondition.com/

Be sure to join @TrueBloodDallas of Loving True Blood in Dallas and the Twitter Sookie, @SookieBonTemps because we're going to talk True Blood on Talk Blood Radio live on Blog Talk Radio. Here's how tonight is going to flow:

9:30pm CDT / 10:30pm EDT: Talk Blood goes live! Join in the fun here or call in at 646.929.0825 and tell us what you thought of tonight's episode!

*PRIZES * We have some prize grab bags to give away over the next few weeks and you can become eligible to win in a number of ways. You can email me with your comment or question ( put Talk Blood in subject area) , you call -in tonight during the show, you can tweet Sookie tonight ( put #talkblood at end of tweet) or join in the fun in our chatroom.

Please email or tweet your comments after the show even if you can't call - in, we will be reading and reacting to your comments LIVE!
'Dallas' at truebloodindallas@gmail

Every week, I read your comments on my latest "True Blood" post, and I get e-mails and Tweets from you guys, and I'm blown away both by your devotion to the show and your desire to discuss it. Even those of you who could not disagree more fervently with me on certain points are at least somewhat respectful, and I thought, like with "Lost," you deserved a place to talk about the episode that was. So, for the next few weeks at least, let's have us some "True Blood" Saturdays, a time to talk about what you thought about the episode that just aired and how it differs from what I thought.

But first, let's talk about some good news. "True Blood" has been renewed for a fourth season! Not that this was in any doubt, really, since the show is HBO's No. 1-rated show and a legitimate sensation, insofar as buzz goes. But it's always nice to have a little security as you head deeper into the season, security that will let you know that regardless of how this season ends and regardless of its quality, there will be at least one more season for the show to string out its storyline. How long will "True Blood" last? Who knows, but there are nearly a dozen books in the series that inspired the show, so there's probably plenty of room to continue.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Firstly, I want to thank all of you who offered me your blood. Users sohn and v'''v-Michael-v'''v, THOMAS H and Mert, maybe there were others too. Y'all are just the nicest! But I think maybe, for a little while, I need to hold off on feedin' from humans. Last time, well, it didn't go so well...I keep askin' myself why couldn't I have gone after Hoyt's mama again instead of that man? He was a real man, too, not like Hoyt's a man, but like my daddy was a man. Mean and strong. Just don't tell Hoyt I said any of that, okay? Oh Hoyt, he's so good, you know? He's cute and thoughtful and sweeter'n most boys in these parts. He must have a screw loose though, because he thinks we can face this world together. I got news for you, Hoyt, we are living in two different universes. Yours is full of sunshine and your mama and food and bodily functions and mine is just darkness. Nothin' else. We're like Jack and Rose. I'm sinkin' to the bottom of the ocean and you gotta get on one of those life boats with all the people with funny accents that are starting to turn purple.

On the upswing, I took some of the advice y'all posted and went to some older vampires for words of wisdom. And now I think I have a new crush! Not a crush-crush, like on a boy, but a friend-crush. Or a big-sister-crush, if you wanna call it that. Pam, over at Fangtasia, is so rad! Now she's a woman, like a real woman. Not like my mama was a woman, but like Madonna's a woman. Or Susan Lucci. And she knows EVERYTHING there is to know about bein' a vampire! So if any of you babies out there have a question you need answered, just post them in the comments section. If I can't answer and no one else here can neither, I can just ask Pam!

Okay, well, I have to go deal with a little "problem" I got here. So wish me luck. And thanks for all the support, it means a lot to me.﻿

Jonathan Olson serves up a frosty Wolf Beer from the tap at The Reel Cafe. Olson, based out of Watha and the owner of Wolf Beer, was contacted by HBO series ‘True Blood' to have his brew featured on the show.

To some people, Wilmington's film industry might appear to be dying. But even if it does, it could come back – as a vampire. Or a werewolf.

Because, you see, we seem to have some uncanny ties to those kinds of creatures and they're treating Wilmington folks well.

Well, at least the HBO series "True Blood" is. A close look at the actors, guests and even crew of the hit television series is sprinkled with hints of Wilmington, much like blood sprinkled on a white death shroud.

First, there's Joe Manganiello. He joined the cast for its third season, which began June 13 and runs Sundays, as the werewolf Alcide Herveaux. Locals might not recognize him immediately as the actor who played bartender Owen Morello on "One Tree Hill." Manganiello has grown out his hair and his beard, and has spent more time in the gym for this role.

** New story, "Two Blondes", Sookie and Pam on a road trip, will be in a new anthology "Death's Excellent Vacation" to be published August 2010

The editors of Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns deliver a new collection-including a never-before-published Sookie Stackhouse story.

New York Times bestselling authors Charlaine Harris, Katie MacAlister, Jeaniene Frost-plus Lilith Saintcrow, Jeff Abbott, and more-send postcards from the edge of the paranormal world to fans who devoured Wolfsbane and Mistletoe and Many Bloody Returns.

With an all-new Sookie Stackhouse story and twelve other original tales, editors Charlaine Harris and Toni L. P. Kelner bring together a stellar collection of tour guides who offer vacations that are frightening, funny, and touching for the fanged, the furry, the demonic, and the grotesque. Learn why it really can be an endless summer-for immortals.

Alexander Skarsgard is attached to star in the Hans Petter Moland-directed oil-rig thriller The Elephant, based on Magnar Jonsgaard’s novel “Black Rain.”The Wrap reports the 33-year-old True Bloodactor will play “a Norwegian roustabout who tangles with a redneck American driller. The two men bond while attempting to shut down a terrifying oil rig explosion.”
FYI: An elephant is industry slang for an oil field that produces at least 500 million barrels.

Friday, June 25, 2010

If you’ve been following me then you know I co-host Talk Blood after True Blood on Blog Talk Radio with Loving True Blood in Dallas‘ @TrueBloodDallas. It’s been part of my Sunday night routine since Season 2 which pretty much consists of livetweeting the East Coast airing, then settling in for Talk Blood at 9:30pm CT.
Talk Blood after True Blood isn’t your ordinary fan show. It’s the only live radio show that goes live right after a new episode airs. And, in my humble opinion, we’ve got the best damn panel of experts that come on every week to give us their thoughts and insights on the night’s show. Each of the Talk Blood experts are active bloggers and diehard True Blood fans. But more importantly, they bring to the Talk Blood table a professional point of view that’s rooted in everything from pop culture to music to theater.
Let’s meet the Talk Blood after True Blood experts:
1. Campblood.org‘s Brian Juergens and Andy Swist: Brian Juergens is an entertainment writer, filmmaker and film critic, the former blog editor of AfterElton.com and creator of campblood.org, the first and most comprehensive website devoted to celebrating and studying horror movies from a gay perspective.
Andy Swist is an illustrator and graphic designer. He is the guiding visual force behind campblood.org. You can view his extensive portfolio at andyswist.com. True Blood fans the world over know Andy for his True Blood paperdolls!
Every week, Brian and Andy produce Blood Work, their hilarious weekly vlog that brings to highlights from each epi in a way that only Brian and Andy can. See for yourself:

2. Next on our list is Mark Blankenship, pop culture critic for The Huffington Post. He’s written for publications like The New York Times, Variety, and the Village Voice. Mark runs the blog on pop culture criticism, The Critical Condition. Recently, he became the content editor for Theatre Development Fund, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the performing arts. Mark’s weekly column, True Blood “Sucker Punch” gives us his take on the one (and yes, he only chooses one) moment in the latest epi that socks you right between the eyes.
3. Meredith Woerner is the Senior Reporter at io9.com and the author ofthe book Vampire Taxonomy: Identifying and Interacting with the Modern-Day Bloodsucker. Her weekly True Blood recap on io9 lists the pros and cons of each episode.
4. Joining us this year is Becca Wilcott. The Toronto based publishing professional is the author of Truly, Madly, Deeply: The Unofficial True Blood Companion. can be found at www.rebeccawilcott.com and www.twitter.com/beccawilcott. Likes include: popular culture, apps, books, readers, ideas, single file, coffee, wine, good hair days, a cat who shall remain unnamed (really, it has no name), dry humour. You can find her at www.rebeccawilcott.com and @BeccaWilcott on Twitter.
5. Last, but certainly not least, we’re joined this year by Jef with one F. Jef is a music blogger for The Houston Press. You can certainly feel music’s influence in his weekly True Blood columns which have titles like “Beck is Thicker than Water” and “Beautifully Broken with Shelby Lynne.” Jef is also the author of new book, The Bible Spelled Backwards Does Not Change the Fact that You Cannot Kill David Arquette and Other Things I learned in the Black Math Experiment.
Hope you’ll join us every Sunday at 10:30pm ET / 9:30pm CT for Talk Blood after True Blood.Listen to us live and call in with your thoughts on the show! If you’ve missed out, you can catch the Talk Blood podcast here.

** Talk Blood after True Blood was created by fans for fans of HBO’s True Blood Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries. Endorsed by, but not affiliated with HBO or True Blood.

For a man, it must be hard not to judge “True Blood’s” newest hunk, Joe Manganiello.
Towering 6’5” into the skies, he has the body of a Greek god, his torso a symmetrically perfect series of heavenly-blessed abs and pecs. He has the smooth, olive tan of a Portuguese soccer player and the square cut jaw line of an all-American hero. And then there are those eyes – a bewitching shade of brown that can flicker with hints of wonderment and magic or, in an instant, can turn steely, dark and brooding.
The “True Blood” newcomer — and AccessHollywood.com’s newest Rising Star — looks like the kind of guy who every gent in the bar wants to be, and every girl wants to be with — but that would be too easy, and simple is everything Joe is not.
He’s the latest major casting choice in Season 3 of HBO’s “True Blood,” making his debut in the franchise this Sunday as Alcide Herveaux, a beloved character from Charlaine Harris’ “Sookie Stackhouse” novels, but had he been a little more average and a little less inspired, Joe would today most likely be nearing the end of a career in professional athletics

Since Peg Aloi recapped the latest episode of True Blood for us, I thought we should get to know her better. It’s also been a little while since we featuredA Taste of True Bloodcontributor.
Peg’s A Taste of True Blood essay, “Night Is the Color of Blood,” is on the importance and meaning of color in True Blood, and it’s a fascinating read, full of things I had never considered about the show before.
Here’s her Q&A:Who is your favorite True Blood character?
When a friend of mine in Florida found out I was watching True Blood, he texted me “Bill or Eric?” And I wrote back “Sam.” Then he texted back to say his wife also liked Sam, and then wrote “Moi: Lafayette.” I think he wanted to know who I thought was the hunkiest vampire — and I do think Sam is the hottest male character — but there are so many interesting characters in the show it’s hard to pick one. I enjoy Hoyt a lot, and also Jessica. Eric can be really funny, and I also love Lafayette. But if I had to pick one, yeah, Sam. Handsome, mysterious, troubled, and more than human.

Last summer I briefly met Charlaine Harris, creator of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (see also HBO series True Blood) at the Anhinga Writer's Conference in Florida, where she was the featured speaker. She was a delightful speaker and, while she signed a book of mine, asked me what I was working on. I mumbled something about this little mystery I was writing and she smiled and said, "Well, don't give up. Don't ever give up." It was a nice encouragement from a woman who had well over 100 people in the autograph line behind me.

When it comes to shapeshifters, Marshall Allman is admittedly biased — after all, he plays Tommy Mickens, the magically transforming brother of Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) on "True Blood." Biased or not, it's hard to deny Marshall's enthusiasm for his character's power set.
"It's so much fun to take something supernatural and actually in my imagination accept that as something real for me," he told Hollywood Crush in an exclusive interview. "It gives me a secret, it gives me a mystery, it gives me this ace up my sleeve that other people might not know about. It drives my imagination wild. I love it! Any way that I get to explore that is so cool."
Marshall's imagination has gone so wild, in fact, that he's already thinking about ways to showcase Tommy's shape-shifting powers in an off-season series of viral videos. Read on to find out more!
"I was joking around with some of my team, and you know how they're doing minisodes between seasons? I was like, 'Man, next year, if they want to do a minisode for me, I've got the perfect idea,'" he said. "All they need to do is have me and Sam. Obviously with the way the season ends, they do this in a continuation of story lines. But I would love to do a viral video where me and Sam as shifters go to a zoo and have a day of it!"

Ok, do we know every single scene in Sunday nights episode yet ? drip--dripThis won't happen after this week because only the first three episodes were on the screener dvds. Whew!From My San Antonio blog

Sunday night's “True Blood” (8 p.m., HBO) contains a true heartbreaker of a scene — and it involves an actress from San Antonio.

Shannon Lucio (“The O.C.”), who grew up here and graduated from John Marshall High, plays vampire Bill Compton's (Stephen Moyer) wife, Caroline, in a flashback to 1866. We initially see a young woman raising a shotgun toward a stranger approaching; it turns out to be her husband.
At first overjoyed to see Bill after a three-year absence, she soon recoils in horror upon discovering what he's become. The extreme sadness felt by Bill, who cries blood tears in the scene, is bound to move you as well.

This Sunday night brings us the third episode of THE third season of “True Blood.” And it looks like it’s going to be amazing. Sookie is trying to find Bill, Eric’s trying to get with Sookie, Sam has an angry little brother, Tara has a vampire love interest, werewolves are on the hunt, and Lafayette is ... well, awesome. And so, it’s time to Shun, Shag, or Marry the many men of “True Blood.” After the jump, I have conveniently divided them into two camps—the Loves of Sookie and the Loves of Tara.

True Blood is all about werewolves this season — and not the pretty-boy Twilight kind. We're talking vicious, neck-branded neo-Nazis who drink vampire blood to feed their addiction. TVGuide.com caught up with Grant Bowler, who plays werewolf pack leader Cooter in seven episodes this season, to find out who Cooter really works for, how far is too far for executive producer Alan Ball, what it will mean for his relationship with Bill (Stephen Moyer) and what's down the road for Sookie (Anna Paquin).True Blood's Denis O'Hare: The King will "rip your f---ing spine out"TVGuide.com: What can you tell us about Cooter and his pack?Grant Bowler: Cooter is a joy to play. I play him like a redneck Romeo. [Laughs] These werewolves have a very strong agenda; they're not just kicking around looking for someone to beat on.TVGuide.com: What can we expect between Cooter and Bill now that Bill seems to be cooperating with the King of Mississippi (Denis O'Hare)?Bowler: It starts off professional with them, but it gets personal very, very quickly. I love the relationship that develops between the two. They just hate each others' guts and need each other dead. It's a really strong, fun dynamic to play.

Alexander Skarsgard and co-star Stephen Moyer rehearse a scene for their hit vampire series, True Blood, on Friday in Los Angeles (June 25).
Show creator Alan Ball was on the scene, directing both Alex and Stephen.
SPOILERS: The scene goes on around a cement truck. Cement is poured over a shallow grave. Eric looks to be wearing handcuffs. And at one point, Bill shoves Eric out of the way. Can’t wait to see the actual scene!!!
A new episode of True Blood airs this Sunday (June 27) @ 9PM ET/PT on HBO!

Wanna know what’s coming up for Sookie and friends Sunday night on HBO’s smash vampire hit “True Blood”?
In “It Hurts Me Too,” Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) get a little closer. Facing off against a crazed werewolf will do that to people.
“I got your rug all wet,” Eric tells her after their bloody encounter.
You’ll learn why the hairy beasties are so eager to suckle on vampires. Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Sookie come to a new understanding, and Tara’s talent for picking the wrong men to get involved with is looking to become a killer streak.
Eric assigns a friendly werewolf named Alcide (Joe Manganiello, who is going to be a huge hit with fans) to accompany Sookie in her quest to find Bill (Stephen Moyer). He comes in handy when the two visit a “werebar.”
The hour ends with just possibly the most disturbing sexual act ever captured on this show, and that’s saying a lot. When Sookie ever catches up with Bill, she may find her vamp is not the undead hunk she thought he was.

"The only place I haven't checked is Russell Edgington's compound--his mansion, with its outbuildings. It would be amazing if Russell were rash enough to keep another vampire prisoner in his own home. But he's been king for a hundred years. It could be that he is that confident. Maybe I could sneak in over the wall, but I wouldn't come out again. The grounds are patrolled by Weres. It's very unlikely we'll get access to such a secure place, and he won't invite us in except in very unusual circumstances."......

Then we pulled up into a driveway and stopped at a gate. A bearded vampire came up and peered in the window, looking at all the occupants carefully. He was far more alert than the indifferent guard at Alcide's apartment building. I heard an electronic hum, and the gate opened. We went up a driveway (I could hear the gravel crunching) and then we swung around in front of a mansion. It was lit up like a birthday cake, and as Eric carefully extracted me from the limo, I could see we were under a porte cochere that was as fancy as all get-out. Even the carport had columns. I expected to see Vivian Leigh come down the steps.......
Behind the mansion, there was indeed a smallish swimming pool, covered for the winter by a huge blacktarp. It had weighted edges that extended far beyond the actual perimeter of the pool. The tiny poolhouse was completely dark. I moved silently down a pathway created with uneven flagstones, and after Ipassed through a gap in a dense hedge, I found myself in a paved area. With my enhanced vision, I wasable to see instantly that I had found the courtyard in front of the former stables. It was a large edificesided with white clapboards, and the second story (where Bubba had spotted apartments) hadgable-style windows. Though his was the fanciest garage I had ever seen, the bays for cars did not have doors, but open archways. I could count four vehicles parked inside, from the limo

National Historic Landmark, Longwood is the beneficiary of the 2010 Pilgrimage Garden Club Natchez Antiques Forum.Longwood (Natchez, Mississippi) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Mississippi Landmark Longwood in 2008

The actor talks about playing the vampire King of Mississippi on the HBO hit

TRUE BLOOD, HBO’s hit series about vampires assimilating into mainstream human culture, adapted by Alan Ball from the novels by Charlaine Harris, is a never-ending source of revelations. Case in point: before this week, who would have imagined that the vampires in Mississippi were ruled by a 2,800-year-old king, Russell Edgington? Okay, the people who read Harris’ books already knew about this, but even they could not have envisioned Russell as portrayed by Denis O’Hare.O’Hare, a Tony Award winner for his featured role in TAKE ME OUT (film and television credits include MILK and a recurring role on BROTHERS & SISTERS), sits down on the set for Bill Compton’s front porch between lighting set-ups for a scene elsewhere on the soundstage to talk about playing his bloody Royal Majesty.

Richelle Mead's popular Vampire Academy series is taking a bite out of the publishing world.

The young adult books follow Rose Hathaway, a 17-year-old half-vampire training to be a protector against evil vampires who are out for blood.

Of course, there's romance mixed in when Rose falls for one of her instructors.

"Spirit Bound," the fifth book in the series, hit the best-seller lists when it was released last month. The sixth and final book in Rose's story will be published in December. Mead will then begin writing another six Vampire Academy books about different characters.

The author talks about her protagonist, adult readers and whether Vampire Academy will appear on the big screen or television.

Q: Did you intend for the character of Rose to be so strong?

A: I'm not sure how I would write someone not strong. ... I wanted someone who has so much potential and isn't afraid to throw herself into danger ... but she's learning self-control.

“True Blood” is the most entertaining show this summer. But the HBO drama takes a startling turn at 9 p.m. Sunday that reminds everyone the vampires don’t play nice. The episode features a sex scene that I’d nominate as the most shocking I’ve ever seen. I think “True Blood” is becoming a show-biz institution.

HBO will use ”True Blood” to set up the season premieres of “Hung” and “Entourage,” starting at 10 p.m. Sunday.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Outrageous Fortune star Grant Bowler's Stateside career continues to truck along nicely. After roles in Lost and Ugly Betty, Bowler joined the cast of True Blood for its third season, alongside another acting export, Anna Paquin.

He also has three movies on the way - when TimeOut finds him he's somewhere between Peru, where's he's been filming prison movie City of Gardens and Melbourne, where he's headed to start on The Killer Elite, a military thriller starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham, among others.

So, from Wolf West to a wolfman named Coot. You've lost the beard - what else has changed?
Well, I'm still acting for a living [but] I guess I live mainly in the States these days - that would be a change. And now I shoot films much more than I shoot television.

Is Coot the biker werewolf at all like Wolf West?
One's named Wolf, one is a wolf. They are both more on the working class side of the equation than not, and they pretty much do what they want most of the time. So those would be the commonalities.

The American version of Outrageous Fortune has started this week - have you seen much of David James Elliot?
I've actually never seen him.

Question: Season 3 has barely started, but I am dying for some True Blood news. Got any to share? —Kelly
Ausiello: Exec producer Alan Ball teases that a big secret Bill’s “been carrying with him gets revealed at the end of the season.” That noise you hear is the sound of me dipping into the Ausiello Files archives and going Hmm…

Question: Have you received confirmation from Alan Ball that Talbot and Eric will get, ahem, down to business on True Blood this season? —Rob
Ausiello: No, but I haven’t received a denial from him, either. “I think one of the things about being a vampire and living for 100 years is you pretty much try everything,” Ball says. “Whether or not [Talbot and Eric] end up getting together I can’t reveal. I’ll definitely tell you that this season is pretty pansexual.” Yeah, got that bit from the first two episodes.

HBO's sultry, silly, sanguine hit show routinely pushes everything to 11 — leaving little room for other bloodsucking fare to make a mark. Which is a shame, because there's one vamp project that should see the light of, er, day.

Alan Ball's televised take on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels is many things — funny, sexy, punchy, twisty — but you'd be hard-pressed to find a show on television with as many bat-shit insane things happening week after week. And it's hard to compete with crazy.

Has True Blood ruined the chances for more vampire TV?Just ask ABC's desperate-vampires show The Gates, which premiered to about the same number of viewers as True Blood (which is a bad thing, given that ABC is a broadcast network, with a much larger potential audience than HBO's paying customers). Or The Vampire Diaries — the CW's highest rated show, but it still pulls down about the same numbers as True Blood — which seems to exist to help vampophiles cope in between Twilight movies and seasons of, yes, True Blood.

So which network — broadcast or otherwise — is going to hatch a new bloodsucker series given such an overwhelming argument not to? Exactly. And that's too bad, because Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt novels are perfectly suited for a long-form serial treatment.

Before Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels that True Blood is based on, began signing books, she answered some frequently asked questions for the 100 assembled fans at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa on June 17th.
"Yes, I'm happy with Alan Ball's production of my novels," Harris said. "Also, if you ask me where I get my inspiration, I will spit on you," she joked.Bringing Harris to Iowa was the brainchild of Rob Cline, director of the Metro Library Network's Out Loud! Author Series. "We should pick one of those vampire authors," he told the Out Loud! planning committee. Four hours and a few phone calls later, Harris had agreed to the appearance -- a co-headlining event with Jace Everett, singer of the True Blood theme song, "Bad Things."
It was her first visit to Iowa and the first time that she had seen Jace Everett perform live. The first time the two Southerners met was in Los Angeles. "We had a few laughs about all the pretty people in L.A.," Everett, a native Texan, told me after his 75-minute concert. We ain't that purdy 'round these parts, I said. He agreed, but added, "y'all are more my type of people." *
I sat down with Harris before the event to chat. Not on the agenda: asking her where she gets her inspiration.
------read on

Team Talk Blood Radio member, Mark Blankenship send us his " Sucker Punch" review of TB S3.02 (You can listen live Sunday night's to our radio show !)

Welcome to Sucker Punch, the only blog post that ranks the gaudiest moments on this week’s episode of True Blood.(Warning: Spoilers Ahead)–
Howdy y’all! I didn’t get around to watching “Beautifully Broken,” this week’s installment of True Blood, until Wednesday night (!), but it was the cap to an excellent day. I signed a lease for a new apartment and made it through every audition round for a popular game show… and then I enjoyed a tasty stew of fangs, fur, and freaks.
But I dig into that, let’s be real for a minute… This season will keep our core characters apart from each other and that makes me nervous. Remember last year, when the “half in Louisiana, half in Texas” stuff made made True Blood feel like two disconnected shows? I don’t want to deal with that again.
That said: This season’s storylines have all been really engaging so far.
For instance, I’m grateful the writers are giving the human characters such interesting things to do. When the humans have human problems—problems that don’t arise from werewolf bites or whatever—then the show becomes much more powerful. To me, at least.